


Permanent Ink

by anniesardors



Category: Chicago PD (TV)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Married Couple, Tattoos
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-09
Updated: 2021-01-09
Packaged: 2021-03-13 10:46:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,904
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28652220
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anniesardors/pseuds/anniesardors
Summary: Jay hates when he and Hailey have to take off their wedding rings for work, so he makes an unexpected suggestion: matching wedding band tattoos.
Relationships: Jay Halstead & Hailey Upton, Jay Halstead/Hailey Upton
Comments: 3
Kudos: 76





	Permanent Ink

**Author's Note:**

> Hello all! I'm back with a fluffy little one-shot. This fic idea was inspired by a friend I had who hated rings and loved tattoos, so when he got married, he got a wedding band ring. I was thinking about the idea while watching Chicago PD and couldn't get the idea out of my head for our favorite ship!
> 
> As always, I am on tumblr as anniesardors and am always accepting prompt ideas! Or just message me to chat anything One Chicago!
> 
> Thanks for reading!

“Jay, you hate needles. I don’t know why you thought this was a good idea.”

“Excuse me for trying to be romantic.” 

Hailey sighs as she walks out of the little shop, Jay on her heels. It’s a sunny Chicago Saturday morning, one of the few that they did not have work and she honestly cannot believe this is how they are spending one of their few mornings off. 

“Next time you want to be romantic, can we choose an activity where you don’t almost break my hand?” She says, half teasing half serious, stretching out her hand in front of her and flexing it to exaggerate her point. 

“Just think of it as early payback for when you inevitably break my hand when you go into labor.” 

They get to where he parked his truck a few hours prior and she turns quickly, facing him. “One, I’m not pregnant and so I won’t be breaking your hand for a long time. Two, if you’re trying to tell me that you think getting a tattoo is as painful as giving birth, I won’t be giving you the opportunity to get me pregnant.”

That shuts him up and he quickly opens up her door, with Hailey laughing as she gets in and watches her husband run around to his side of the truck. 

When Jay approached her a week ago about getting tattoos, she thought he was out of his mind. In all the years that she had known him, he had never once expressed interest in getting a tattoo and she never thought it would be something he would consider for one reason and one reason only: needles. She knew her husband and there were two things he hated in this world: crime and needles (although she was not quite sure which one he hated more some days.) Each year, him getting his flu shot was an ordeal, and don’t even get her started on how he would act when he got injured at work.

So, when he mentioned the idea, casually one night as they were getting ready for bed, she was shocked. It had been a long day at work, the Intelligence unit in the middle of a drug case that seemed like it would never end. Jay and Hailey had only been married for a month at that point and were well adjusted back into the hustle and bustle of work after being gone for a few days on their honeymoon. 

She thinks back to that night, the two of them enjoying the simplicity of being alone and married and away from everything and everyone when Jay suggested the tattoos.

“I think Kev hurt his knee during the raid today. He was limping a bit.” Hailey says as she slips out of the shirt she wore for work that day. She searches her drawer, finding an oversized sleep tshirt, most likely one of Jay’s old shirts, and puts it on. 

She looks over to Jay, who is sitting on the edge of their bed, unbuttoning the cuffs of his long-sleeved shirt. She throws her old shirt at him, laughing. “You ignoring me?”

He catches it because he’s highly trained and always on the alert. “He was icing it in the locker room later,” Jay says. “He said it wasn’t bad, just sore.”

Hailey hums and moves to her plug in her phone. “You okay?” 

Jay’s quiet for a moment and she pauses by her bedside table, watching him, until he says, “We didn’t wear our rings today.” 

She shoots a confused look at him. “So? We don’t wear our rings when we use our guns. It’s a safety thing.”

“I know. It just felt weird.”

It was not the first time he had brought up them taking off their rings. Normally, when they went to work, they would both wear their wedding rings. Having been married almost a month, they were both still excited to show off their commitment to each other and were more than happy to wear the rings. However, they knew there were times that they would be out in the field and it would not be a good idea to wear the rings, for fear of losing them or getting the metal band caught in their guns. It had happened several times in the past few weeks and every time one of them had to take off their ring for work, Hailey would see the same disappointed look on Jay’s face. 

“We’re not taking them off forever. Just to do our job.” She tells him. “Then we happily put them back on.” 

She flashes a smile at him and he gives her a small one back. Unsatisfied, she goes to sit next to him on the edge of the bed, resting her hand on his knee. 

“I had an idea.” He says.

“Dangerous.” 

Her teasing is greeted with a small shove from her husband, who says in a calm voice. “We should get wedding band tattoos.” 

She cocks her head at him and when she sees that he is not joking, she turns her body and pulls her legs up onto the bed, tucking her feet under her. “I’m sorry what?” 

“Wedding band tattoos. It’s a real thing. People get a tattoo where they would wear their ring. It’s really-”

“Oh no, I know what it is.” She cuts him off. “You know how tattoos work right?”

“Of cou-”

“Needles, Jay. Needles.” She is talking with her hands to emphasize her point and he is looking at her like he is making no sense. “Babe, if I had a dollar for every time you complained about not wanting to get a shot, I would never need to work again.”

He scrunches his face slightly in offense. “I thought it would be a nice alternative to not being able to wear our rings.”

“You know silicone rings are a thing, right? No needles required.” 

Jay shrugs. “I know. And that’s great for some people. Just doesn’t feel like us, you know?”

“And a tattoo does?” She questions.

“It’s permanent.” He says with a nod. “It’s a commitment. Just like us.” 

“You’re strangely romantic, you know that?”

He turns his body so he is facing her on the bed, grabbing her hand and holding it tightly in his. “I hate having to take off my ring because the day you put that ring on my hand was the best day of my life. And this ring represents the best thing in my life: you and our life together. So, yeah, maybe I want there to always be something there to remind me of how lucky I got.” 

The words are barely out of his mouth when she is kissing him, whispering “okay” against his lips. 

That was how they found themselves in a tattoo parlor on their Saturday morning off. Hailey loved her husband, but in the back of her mind, she wondered if he was going to back out because of how much he hated needles. But every time she asked him if he was sure, he always told her “My love for you is much stronger than my hatred of needles.” 

Neither one of them was flashy and complicated, so they went for a simple design. Just two black lines around each of their ring fingers. It was simple and made sense, just like them. 

When they got to the tattoo parlor that morning, Hailey could tell Jay was nervous, but she just held his hand and whispered “I love you” which calmed him down enough to get in the chair. They decided that he would go first because there was no way he would be able to watch Hailey get her tattoo and then be able to muster up the strength to get his own. Hailey knew she would feel the pain of the needle, but that she would be able to get through it without any issues. 

For Jay though, it would be a different story. He was visibly uncomfortable the whole time and the tattoo artist had to tell him several times to relax. Jay did not watch as the ink was applied to his finger, instead pointing his head in the complete other direction and clasping onto Hailey’s hand, hard. He didn’t talk for the majority of the time, just clenched his teeth and kept his eyes on his smiling wife. He only cursed and complained a few times during the process and saved his larger expressions of pain for when they were walking out of the parlor.

Jay was more than happy to jump out of the chair when he was done and give Hailey her turn. The prick of the needle did not bother Hailey much and she talked and joked with Jay and the tattoo artist the whole time she was getting the ink on her body. They were right in that the pain did not bother Hailey the way it did Jay, but he still insisted she hold his hand “just in case.” She rolled her eyes, teasing him once again that this was a crazy idea. 

But now, sitting in the truck with her husband, freshly tattooed, Hailey is happy they did this, as crazy as the idea sounded a week ago. She glances between her hand that is sitting in her lap and Jay’s which is settled on the steering wheel and she is happy they have something matching and permanent to show to the world what they know in their hearts.

“What?” He says when he catches her looking at him. 

“I was just thinking that this was a good idea.” She hums and from the corner of her eye, she can see the way his face lights up. “Don’t let it go to your head, okay?” 

His right hand reaches out for hers as he keeps his eyes on the road. He brings her hand to his lips and gives it a soft kiss before settling their hands in his lap. “Thank you for doing this with me. And for holding my hand in there.” He winks as he adds the last part. 

“Of course.” She gives his hand a squeeze. “It’s like you said, it’s nice to always have a reminder of how lucky we got.” 

“Always.”

“So, it was worth the needles?” She says, turning her head slightly against the back of the seat.

Jay gives off a small chuckle. “I’d take a thousand needles for you. That’s how much I love you.” 

“That might just be the most romantic thing you have ever said to me.” She lets out a loud laugh and they sit there in silence for a moment. They are turning onto the street where they live, their hands still intertwined in his lap, Hailey’s eyes still gazing at Jay. 

“Now every time we have to take our rings off for work,” He finally says and glances at her quickly, a small smile on his face, “I can look down at my hand and remember what I’m coming home to.” 

“Does that mean you’re going to stop getting yourself shot?” She teases and he just laughs. 

“One hundred percent. I’ve got a hot wife who would kill me if that happened again.” 

“Oh, you better believe it” 

Yeah, they were pretty lucky. And it was a good thing these tattoos were going to last forever. 

Because so were they.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed! Kudos and comments are always greatly appreciated!


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